The Handmaid of Desire

by John L' Heureux and John L'Heureux

Book Overview

Hilarious satire of academia set in a northern California university literature department. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569470731
• ISBN13: 9781569470732
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

I am one of the "fools". Well, that's the only sympathetic group in this novel, and they are marginalized. With personal experience of a college French department where the dominant element would gladly push out that pesky language and literature and style itself The Department of Theory and Discourse, I admit that much of my delight in this satire comes from the in jokes. However, there is another dimension here that appeals to any reader interested in the task of writing fiction, which L'Heureux (how do you pronounce this happy name in American, anyway?) deconstructs even as he sends up Deconstruction. Who can resist the parallel of Olga, in her role as Author, to Mary Poppins? She alights on the scene, opens her carpetbag of tricks, manipulates her unsuspecting charges and, having changed everything, disappears into the air.

L'Heureux picks up where Camille Paglia leaves off.

I roared at Olga Kominska's gnomic observations, as well as her ability to coax nudity of body or soul from pretentious masters of the hidden agenda. She needs no more than "Constant Comment" (!) tea, stale cookies, and the sort of insight into human nature that French theory merely hopes to deliver. Her ironic refrain of "up to a point" seems only to crescendo with repetition--one of many reasons why I credit L'Heureux with talent of a high order."Handmaid" is a subtle work whose admirable tension between thematic sophistication and stylistic economy might be thrown away on some--perhaps those too privileged to laugh at their own caricature. Moreover, even as he satirizes it, L'Heureux makes wickedly clever use of Postmodernist theory, weaving the tangled perspectives it seeks to deconstruct into the very fabric of his plot. Form and content crystallize into a razor-edged commentary on the closet elitism, myopia, and self-deception of the "literary" herd.

lovely reading

the reading is quick and enjoyable. However, there are things that remain unclear and need explaination. Such as, who Olga really is and why only a certain group of people could be part of "it." Why couldn't Daryl be part of "it" and why were some people more important than others in her eyes? I enjoyed the book, no doubt, but i need more clarification.

Chicken-soup for the badness in you.

Had a terrible cold over New Years, so I crept into bed with la "Handmaid" and laughed myself well. A wicked, cunningly crafted send-up of everything in academia that makes one cry for mercy these days. Antic. Witty. Wicked.

A writer just might manipulate lives for fiction.

To appreciate, L'Heureux's novel let yourself deconstruct the intentions of the narrative. On the surface, this sordid story answers the question why most English MAs don't proceed to earn Ph.Ds. Anybody who has spent a year in a graduate English department can relate to the foolish politics as an outsider or a victim. For those who dwelled in a more nurturing environment, here's some relief. Be patient with the cynicism, cruelty and an underlying opinion that sexual intercourse is something special as an adolescent will attest. The names of literary critics drop like pellets under a swarm of gerbils -- still play along. L'Heureux's latest novel is something more than a personal vendetta -- It's literature verite, how novels are made